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Swimming elk puts on rare show |
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Tuesday, October 25, 2011 07:25 |
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Photo by Tim Nielsen, Fort Collins Coloradoan
By TIM NIELSEN, FORT COLLINS COLORADOAN
I took a hike to Mills Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park in late September on an unseasonably warm day. When I arrived at the lake, I found people fishing, eating lunch and soaking their feet in the water. I set up my tripod to take some photos and eavesdropped on several conversations about not falling into the lake when people were wading around in it.
I then moved on along the shoreline to my own private rock outcropping to continue to take photos. I was getting a little bored of sunning myself like a marmot when all of a sudden something caught my eye in the distance. It was a big bull elk crossing the lake.
The big guy moved from a shallow spot to some deeper water submerging his entire body with his rack of antlers bobbing up and down as he swam. He came to another shallow spot, rose up out of the water and shook his coat like a dog. He then made a beeline for a rock platform on the shoreline and hoisted himself out of the water like an Olympic athlete getting out of a pool.
I was stunned at my luck. I had the tripod set up and was leisurely clicking away as he performed for me. At one point, the bull appeared to be looking right at me for some reason. When he removed himself from the lake and started advancing toward me on the path around the lake, I was sure he was coming for me. Other people had started to follow him down the trail like he was the Pied Piper.
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